16 | DECEMBER 8 • 2022 

and teach Hebrew, Jewish studies and 
Jewish history as part of the national 
curriculum. The principal of one 
school told us that 30% of his pupils 
are dual Israeli citizens, the children of 
Azerbaijanis who made aliyah to Israel 
and moved back.
In contrast to many other parts of the 
former Soviet Union, one leader of the 
Ashkenazi community recalled, “I did 
not have to hide my [Jewish] nationality, 
but was also never asked.” 
When I asked him why he did not 
emigrate like the majority of Jews in 
the former Soviet Union, he said, “We 
are comfortable living here as different 
nationalities. I never needed to leave here 
to start another life elsewhere.”

ISRAEL AND AZERBAIJAN
Israel and Azerbaijan established dip-
lomatic relations in 1993, and I was 

surprised to see the Israeli flag flying 
predominantly outside the embassy, 
given that it is the nearest Israeli embas-
sy to Tehran. Azerbaijan has the world’s 
second-largest Shi’a Muslim population, 
but unlike the largest Shi’a state, Iran, 
Azerbaijan is very friendly to Israel.

Israeli Ambassador George Deek is an 
Arab Christian and the youngest serving 
Israeli ambassador. He described both 
Israel and Azerbaijan as “beacons of tol-
erance surrounded by countries that do 
not permit religious coexistence.” 
Azerbaijan supplies Israel with 30-40% 
of its oil, and the two countries cooper-
ate extensively on security and defense. 
In fact, Israel was the main supplier of 
arms to Azerbaijan in its 2020 war with 
Armenia and is now assisting Azerbaijan 
to defuse the one million landmines scat-
tered throughout Nagorno-Karabakh.
A recent opinion poll commissioned 

by the Israeli Embassy found that Israel 
is the second most favorable country 
in the eyes of the Azerbaijani public, 
after Turkey. Despite their extensive 
cooperation, Azerbaijan did not open 
an embassy in Israel to prevent inciting 
its Muslim neighbors and the Non-
Aligned Movement. Our meeting with 
Ambassador Deek turned out to be ser-
endipitous, as minutes after we left his 
office, Azerbaijan’s Parliament voted to 
open an embassy in Israel.
Metro Detroit is home to a substantial 
community of Mountain Jews, who are 
the descendants of Jews who migrated to 
the Persian Empire after the Babylonian 
Exile. Their native language is Juhuri, a 
Jewish dialect of Persian. 
We spent our final day in the coun-
try visiting Krasnaya Sloboda, known 
as Red Village, in the Quba district, 
close to the Russian border. Red Village 

Dan Brotman at the 
Gilaki Synagogue, 
the only year-round 
active synagogue in 
Red Village

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

continued from page 15

